Devun Pahwa Final Exam Paper Section B Question 1 Gender and nationality are two characteristics that can be the central source of a conflict in various societies; as a result many pieces of literature reflect this conflict. In An American in New York by LeAnne Howe, we see how nationality is the central conflict as a Native American descendent tries to find her national identity while traveling around in New York City. The main conflict that involves gender in many societies and texts is women oppression by men whether the abuse is physical, sexual, mental, or another way. Two texts that reflect this is the documentary Beneath the Veils and the short story The Clearing by Luisa Mercedes Levinson. In all these different pieces of literature either gender or nationality is significant because how it helps shape the plot, images, themes, and other aspects of the story. In An American in New York a female of Native American ancestry struggles to find her true identity as she lives in America, a land of immigrants, and very few Native Americans. She is assimilated into the American culture and has a typical American life, but has discomfort with her national identity. One way nationality induces irony in this story is when she points out the hypocrisy that she is an “Indian selling and trading U.S. Treasury Bonds” (Howe, 4). This is ironic because of the responsibility of taking care of the treasure bonds is given to the true American, but the assigned by the government of her land that is run by immigrants. Another situation that incorporates the importance of the protagonist’s nationality and multiple literary devices in the story, like symbolism, is when she visits the Statue of Liberty (Howe, 11). Here the author does a very good job of connecting the setting to the main character's conflict and invoking the reader to think upon that connection. The significance of ending the story at the Statue of Liberty, which stands on the immigration gateway of America, Ellis Island, brings up the

This
preview
has intentionally blurred sections.
Sign up to view the full version.